Forget hearts, for those looking for the ultimate in personalized gift this Valentine's Day how about turning one's face into a chocolate treat for their significant other?
The participants who took part in a making face chocolate workshop in Tokyo, first headed to scan their faces in order to build the base data to make silicon moulds into which the chocolate is poured.
Yuji Hara, the representative director of KS Design Lab and who helped to originally create the idea for Valentine's Day, explained that the face chocolates were made possible due a fast scanner.
"The new full-body scanner that we've implemented is extremely capable and can scan people very quickly. The original idea was that we could do something with that. So this whole event really just started from that sort of idea," Hara told Reuters.
After participants are scanned, they then edit their face data as the scanner is not always perfect before that data is then set to a 3D printer to create the first step in making a silicon mould.
In Japan, women normally give chocolates to men and men then reciprocate a month later on White Day.
In accordance with local Japanese Valentine traditions, the face chocolates are only for women.
"In Japan there's 'White Day', and for that we're thinking of doing a full-body something for men but instead of chocolate maybe using something else. That's our plans at the moment," Hara added.
After the melted chocolate is poured into the mould, the face chocolates will be ready in 15 minutes.
"I didn't think that it would actually turn out looking this much like me and so I'm a bit surprised," 30-year-old Mariya Kawae said, who planned on giving the chocolate to both to her husband and colleagues at work.
For other participants, such as 38-year-old Kana Yuasa who had her 4-year-old daughter Hisoka make her face, the experience was not without its share of unexpected twists.
"I had actually wanted to make it myself but thought that people might find it somewhat odd. So I thought that if a child did however then it would still be quite nice, so I got her to make them instead. I actually wanted her to give it to her dad, but apparently she's going to give it to a friend," Yuasa said.
While hoping to give the chocolate to her friend at kindergarten, Hisoka was apparently unable to wait and ended sampling her creation.
While only one piece of chocolate is made during the workshop, participants are given the moulds so that in addition to making more chocolate they can use the mould to other sweets or even ice cubes in the shape of their head.
(Video Source: Reuters)